Legal consciousness of an operative: concept, specifics, mechanism of formation

Introduction. The problems of professional legal consciousness of the officers of operative units are relevant, insufficiently studied and require scrupulous consideration by the scholars. The purpose is to analyze the peculiarities of professional legal consciousness of officers from operative units and mechanisms of its formation. Materials, Results and Discussion. The relationship of legal consciousness and law, its influence on the state of law and order in society are considered. The focus is made on the special features of professional legal consciousness of officers from operative units. It is noted that the specifics of the activity performed by the officers of police operative units determines the features of their professional legal consciousness. Conclusions. The factors which influence legal consciousness of operative units’ officers involve officers’ readiness for legal compromise, secrecy of law enforcement, targeting general counteraction against crime, dominance of group legal consciousness, comprehension of criminal subculture, readiness for law enforcement decisions not regulated by legal norms, being convinced in using the members of the underworld to obtain intelligence, limited character of law enforcement activity. All this forms the narrowed goal-setting that affects legal consciousness.